Chapter 6 - The Freezing Out
The screen flickered in the empty ballroom, casting a cold, blue light across Mason’s distorted features.
"Emily, wait—stop," Mason stammered, stepping forward as if he could somehow reach through the glass and grab the phone. His voice lost its boardroom resonance, cracking with raw panic. "You can’t lock me out of my own servers! That’s corporate sabotage! The Series C valuation closes on Monday with the Tokyo venture group! If they see an internal asset freeze—"
"They won't see an internal freeze, Mason," Jonathan Sterling’s calm, gravelly voice cut through the speaker. The senior partner leaned into the frame beside Emily, his expression devoid of any professional warmth. "They’ll see a clean, court-approved receivership. As of eleven minutes ago, Mrs. Hartwell exercised her controlling shareholder rights under the primary intellectual property trust. You're locked out of the core code repository, the primary banking routing numbers, and the corporate credit lines."
Camille rushed to Mason’s side, staring at the phone screen in mounting horror. "Who is that? Tell him he's crazy, Mason! Call your general counsel right now!"
"Shut up, Camille!" Mason roared, shoving her hand away instinctively. He stared back at the screen, his face white as paper. "Emily, please. Let's not do this over a FaceTime call. You're pregnant, you shouldn't be stressing yourself like this. Come back to the Carlyle suite, let's talk about this like adults—"
"I am acting like an adult, Mason," Emily replied quietly. Her voice was terrifyingly steady, carrying the weight of a woman who had finally stopped bargaining with a ghost. "The guards at the Westchester estate have your new address. Your personal effects will be delivered to a rented apartment in Queens by noon tomorrow. Right where you started."
May you like
She tapped the screen.
The video feed went black.
